Zlabia | Middle Eastern Ramadan Zalabia

Zlabia | Middle Eastern Ramadan Zalabia

Zalabia also known as jelabi is one of the staples sweets in Ramadan back home; it brings lots of childhood memories. They are crunchy and sweet, so easy to make with very few ingredients.

Ingredients:
* 1 1/4 cup corn starch
* 1 cup flour
* 1 tbsp yeast
* 1 tbsp sugar
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 1/2 cup lukewarm water
* 1 cup oil for frying
* kunafa coloring if you want to make orange ones (optional)

Simple syrup ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tbsp lemon juice or a pinch of citric acid

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine corn starch, flour, yeast, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix until well combined
2. Gradually add water and keep stirring until all are combined, and the batter is like a pancake batter.
3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it in a warm area for 45 minutes.
4. Once the dough has risen, use a spatula and stir until there are no air bubbles left
5. Pour the dough into a squeeze bottle, don’t fill the bottle all the way; you need to stir the dough every time you fill the squeeze bottle.
6. Heat the oil on medium heat.
7. Gently squeeze the batter out of the bottle into the hot oil, forming a circler pattern that resembles funnel cakes.
8. Fry on both sides until golden brown.
9. Take them out of the oil and dip them in cold simple syrup.
10. Repeat the process until you run out of batter.

Notes:
* It’s important to stir the dough after it has risen to get rid of all air bubbles.
* Don’t fill out the squeeze bottle all the way up; the dough rises so quickly
* It’s important to stir the dough before filling up the squeeze bottle to get rid of air bubbles
* You can buy a squeeze bottle on amazon( I have linked a squeeze bottle in this post) or make one like the one I did in the video.